Greenway, 20, is the first African-American player ever chosen for the U.S. team.

“Even starting in 1960 when we had the amateurs playing in the Olympics and we were able to get the gold medal there, and then most recently in 1980, just being able to build on that legacy is an unbelievable feeling for me, and I’m happy I’m able to get this opportunity now,” Greenway told the Sporting News. “I’ve been able to accomplish a lot of good things and just allowing a lot of African-American kids who are younger than me who see kind of what I’m doing, I hope that can be an inspiration for them.

Greenway was one of four collegiate players selected for a U.S. team that largely consists of players who are starring in overseas leagues, a career minor-leaguer, and a 38-year-old recently-retiredStanley Cup champion.

The U.S. team opted for this mix after the NHL announced that it wouldn’t send its players to the Winter Games for the first time in 30 years.

Greenway’s selection wasn’t a surprise: He had participated in Team USA pre-Olympic media events.

A junior at Boston University and a 2015 Minnesota Wild second-round draft pick, Greenway earned a spot on the Olympic roster with a breakout performance at the 2017 International IceHockey Federation World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.

The 6-foot-6, 227-pound forward from Canton, New York, was a man among boys for the gold medal-winning U.S. team, combining an intimidating physicality with soft scoring hands.

He had 3 goals and 5 assists in seven games at the World Juniors. He’s tallied 7 goals and 10 assists in 19 NCAA Division I hockey games this season.

Boston University Head Coach David Quinn has said that if Greenway wasn’t a hockey player he would be “a five-star tight end for Alabama and Notre Dame” because of his size.

Jordan Greenway, right, was a towering figure for the U.S. at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship. USA Hockey is hoping for a repeat performance from him at the 2018 Winter Olympics (Photo/ Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images).

U.S. Olympic men’s hockey Head Coach Tony Granato hopes Greenway’s size and skill will give opposing players fits in PyeongChang just as it did in Montreal and Toronto in 2017.

Here’s the entire U.S. roster. The team will be captained by right wing Brian Gionta, who notched 289 goals and 299 assists in 1,006 games for the New Jersey Devils,MontrealCanadiens and Buffalo Sabres from 2001-02 to his retirement after the 2016-17 season. He won a Stanley Cup with the Devils in the 2002-03 season.

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That’s likely to be the response from some fans on New Year’s Day when USA Hockey announces the roster for the men’s team that will compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea Feb. 9-25.

Forward Jordan Greenway has represented the U.S. before. Will he do it again in PyeongChang? (Photo/Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)

The National Hockey League isn’t pausing its season to send its star players to the Winter Games for the first time in 30 years, meaning hockey powers such as the United States, Canada, and Russia are going to have to be creative in filling out their Olympic rosters.

The U.S. team could be a mixture of young collegiate stars and seasoned former NHLers who are still playing the game in North American minor leagues, Europe, or elsewhere.

If that’s the case, watch out for two names: Jordan Greenway and Robbie Earl. Greenway, a left wing for Boston University and a 2015 second-round draft pick of the Minnesota Wild, made an international splash about this time last year at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.

The 6-foot-6, 227-pound forward from Canton, New York, was physical force with a deft scoring touch at the tournament. He notched 3 goals and 5 assists in seven games at the 2017 World Juniors.

Boston University forward Jordan Greenway played in both the IIHF’s World Junor Championship and World Championship in 2017 (Photo/Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images).

Greenway, 20, also appeared in eight games for the U.S. at the 2017 IIHF World Championship in Paris and Cologne in May. He went scoreless in a tourney that featured squads stocked with NHL players whose teams didn’t make or were eliminated early from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Greenway got off to an admitted slow start at BU this season, tallying 7 goals and 10 assists in 19 games.

“I don’t think I’ve played as well as I wanted to here in the first few games of the season,” Greenway told the St. Paul, Minnesota’s twincities.com in November. “I still have a couple of months to show them what I can do. I do think I could play in the Olympics, for sure.”

Jordan Greenway hopes to overcome a slow start at Boston University this season and make the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team (Photo/Boston University).

Slow start or not, U.S. hockey people like Greenway’s game. He participated in the Team USA pre-Olympic media summit at Park City, Utah, in September and posed for pictures wearing a U.S. national team jersey with the American flag in the background.

“I feel very fortunate for this opportunity,” he told reporters at the summit. “I didn’t think it would come this soon, but I’m going to take full advantage of it.”

Will forward Robbie Earl go from 2005-06 Frozen Four MVP to 2018 U.S. Olympian?

Earl also appears to be trying to take advantage of opportunity presented to him. The 32-year-old forward from Chicago is an assistant captain for EHC Biel, a team in Switzerland’s National League.

He had an Olympics audition of sorts playing for the U.S. at the four-team Deutschland Cup tournament in November. He was scoreless in three games.

Earl played college hockey at the University of Wisconsin from 2003-04 to 2005-06. The Badgers won the NCAA Frozen Four title in Earl’s final year at the school and he was named the tournament’s most valuable player. He scored 58 goals and 63 assists in 125 games in his collegiate career.

He was taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the sixth round of the 2004 NHL Draft. He appeared in 47 NHL games between the Leafs and the Minnesota Wild, tallying only 6 goals and 1 assist.

Robbie Earl skated for Team USA at the 2017 Deutschland Cup in November Photo/von Mathias Renner/City-Press GbR via USA Hockey).

Earl had a productive North American minor league career playing for the Leafs’ American Hockey League affiliate in Toronto and the Wild’s former farm team in Houston, collecting 66 goals and 103 assists in 313 games.

His scoring carried over to Switzerland where he’s skated for Biel, EV Zug, and Raspperswil-Jona. He has 91 goals and 110 assists in 225 NLA games since 2012-13.

An assistant captain on the Biel team this season, Earl has 11 goals and 13 assists in 30 games.

While Greenway and Earl represent opposite ends of the hockey spectrum – one player nearing the start of his professional career while the other is approaching the twilight of his – they have one thing in common: University of Wisconsin connections.

Earl is a Wisconsin alum. Tony Granato, the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team head coach, is also the Badgers bench boss. Greenway’s younger brother, J.D., is a sophomore defenseman who plays for Granato at Wisconsin.

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If the U.S. team at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship was a 1960s pop music group, it would probably be called Jordan and the Americans (Okay, I had to get some kind of Jay and the Americans reference in there before the end of the year).

Boston University forward Jordan Greenway continued his impressive play for Team USA at the tournament Saturday, by notching a goal and an assist and by generally wrecking havoc on Team Canada in the U.S.’s 3-1 victory at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

Greenway, a 2015 Minnesota Wild second round draft pick, made his 6-foot-5, 230-pound presence felt at both ends of the ice and made life miserable for Team Canada’s goaltender with numerous close-range stuff-in attempts.

His play Saturday caught the attention of analysts on the NHL Networkand several folks on social media.

More from Chris Peters’ The United States of Hockeyblog: The way Greenway has developed over the last two years should give a lot of hope to Minnesota Wild fans. He played like the power forward he was brought onto this team to be, using his frame to get pucks to the net and make some plays. The move he made to score Team USA’s second goal showed his combination of power and finesse. You need guys like that to impose their will on a game and I thought we saw that more today from Greenway than any other time in the tournament.

Boston University forward Jordan Greenway made his presence felt in the United States’ 6-1 victory over Latvia in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship Monday night.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pound sophomore capped the U.S. squad’s night, scoring the team’s sixth goal against a scrappy but outgunned Latvia team. He led Team USA with seven shots on goal, most of them close to beleaguered Latvian goaltender Marek Mitens.

Team USA’s Erik Foley, left, and Jordan Greenway stand during the playing of U.S. national anthem during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship. (Photo/ Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images).

Greenway, the Minnesota Wild’s 2015 second-round draft pick, was named Team USA’s best player after the game for his offensive display and his intimidating physical play.

For those watching the world juniors – and it’s great viewing to see the next generation of NHL players – Greenway is easily found. He’s the man-mountain parked in front of the opposing net casting an imposing shadow over the goalie.

BU hockey Head Coach Dave Quinn has described Greenway, a Canton, N.Y. native, as a highly-skilled hockey player with the football body of “a five-star tight end at Alabama or Notre Dame.”

Erik Foley, Jordan Greenway, and Caleb Jones received early Christmas presents Saturday – roster spots on the U.S. team that will compete in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.

With its final roster announcement, USA Hockey will skate one of the most diverse teams in the 10-nation tournament that begins Monday in Toronto and Montreal.

The three American players join Team Canada’sMathieu Joseph and Team Sweden’sOliver Kylington members of the diverse National Hockey League draft class of 2015 who will represent their countries in the tournament.

Providence College Friars forward Erik Foley in action for Team USA against Finland (Photo/Rena Laverty/USA Hockey).

Foley, a Winnipeg Jets third round draft pick, is a forward for Providence College Friars of Hockey East. A sophomore, Foley leads the team in scoring with 7 goals and 8 assists in 15 games.

Greenway, a Minnesota Wild second round draft pick, is a forward for Boston University of Hockey East. The sophomore is the Terriers’ second-leading scorer with 6 goals and 10 assists in 16 games.

Portland Winterhawks defenseman Caleb Jones will patrol the blue line for Team USA at IIHF world junior championship (Photo/Rena Laverty/USA Hockey).

Jones, an Edmonton Oilers fourth round draft pick, plays defense for the PortlandWinterhawks, a major junior team in the Western Hockey League. Jones, the younger brother of Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones, is fifth on the Winterhawks in scoring with 3 goals and 28 assists in 32 games. He’s tenth in scoring among WHL defensemen.

Mathieu Joseph, right, will play for Canada at the world junior championship tournament in Montreal and Toronto (Photo/Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images)

Team Canada’s Joseph, a Tampa Bay Lightning fourth round selection, is a forward for the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He’s the Sea Dogs’ second-leading scorer with 33 goals and 40 assists in 58 games.

And let’s not forget Sweden’s Kylington. When he isn’t wearing his country’s classy Three Crowns jersey, the Calgary Flames second round draft pick skates for the Stockton Heat, the Flames’ American Hockey League affiliate.

Kylingtonis ninth on the Heat in scoring – and second among defensemen – with 4 goals and 9 assists in 25 games. He appeared in one game for the Flames in 2015-16.

Joseph, 19, will represent Canada for the first time at any level internationally when he takes to the ice for the tournament that begins December 26 in Toronto and Montreal.

Canada will open with a tough matinee match against Russia at Toronto’s Air CanadaCentre while the United States plays Latvia in an evening contest at the arena.

Joseph is the second-leading scorer on the Saint John Sea Dogsof the Quebec MajorJunior Hockey League with 25 goals and 20 assists in 29 games. The 120th overall pick in the 2015 National Hockey League Draft has scored 80 goals and 91 assists in 176 QMJHL games since the 2013-14 season.

Mathieu Joseph in action against the Czech Republic in exhibition game play during the 2016 National Junior Team Sport Chek Selection Camp. Photo/Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).

Joseph got an early Christmas present in December when the Lightning signed him to a three-year entry-level contract on the eve of the IIHF tournament.

Joseph’s game is about high energy and enthusiasm – traits he carries on and off the ice. He’s a gregarious personality, something he inherited from his parents.

“I’m a pretty outgoing guy,” he told Canada’s TSN. “Honestly, it’s easy for me to talk. My family has been raised like that. My parents are like that, maybe not as hyper per se, but I”d say they raised me like that.”

Pierre-Olivier Joseph has 4 goals and 23 assists in 32 QMJHL games this season. NHL CentralScouting lists him as a player to watch and projects him to be a second or third-round pick at the 2017 draft to be held June 23-24 at Chicago’s UnitedCenter.

USA Hockey will announce its final 23-man U.S. roster for the IIHF world juniors on Dec. 24. Three players of color who were also chosen in the 2015 draft are in the hunt for roster spots: Caleb Jones, a defenseman for the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks and an EdmontonOilers fourth-round pick; Boston University forward Jordan Greenway, a Minnesota Wild second-round draft choice; and Providence College forward Erik Foley, a Winnipeg Jets third-round pick.

USA Hockeyannounced Monday that 27 players have made the preliminary roster for the tourney and will attend a training camp Dec. 16-20 at HarborCenter in Buffalo, N.Y. The final 23-man roster will be announced on Dec. 24.

Three players of color, all members of National Hockey League Draft class of 2015, are vying for jobs on the U.S. squad. They are:

Portland Winterhawks’ Caleb Jones

Caleb Jones, defense, Portland Winterhawks, Western Hockey League. Jones is the younger brother of Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones, who starred in Portland before the Nashville Predators selected him with the fourth overall pick of the 2013 NHL Draft. Jones joined the NHL after competing in the World Juniors.

Now Caleb Jones is making a name for himself in Portland. He’s fifth on the Winterhawks in scoring with 3 goals and 22 assists in 28 games. His 25 points is tops among the team’s defensemen. He’s tied for second in assists among WHL defensemen.

The Edmonton Oilers chose Jones in the fourth round of the 2015 draft and signed him to an entry-level NHL contract in April.

Portland Winterhawks defenseman Caleb Jones is fifth on his team in scoring (Photo/Dayna Fjord/Portland Winterhawks).

“Caleb has had a chance in the past to represent USA at several international events but I know the opportunity to play in the World Junior tournament on the biggest stage is something he’s always looked forward to,”said Mike Johnston, the Winterhawks head coach and general manager. “I am confident he will impress at the camp.”

6-foot-5, 230-pound sophomore is second on the Terriers in scoring with 6 goals and 7 assists in 13 games. He’s tallied 3 game-winning goals so far this season.

The Minnesota Wild drafted Greenway in the second round with the 50th overall pick of the 2015. His younger brother, defenseman J.D. Greenway, plays for the University ofWisconsin. The Toronto Maple Leafs chose him in the third round with the 72nd overall pick of the 2016 draft.

Boston University sophomore Jordan Greenway is second on the Terriers in scoring (Photo/Richard T. Gagnon)

Providence College’s Erik Foley

Erik Foley, forward, Providence College, Hockey East. Foley leads The Friars in scoring with 6 goals and 8 assists in 14 games. He also leads the team with 3 power play goals and 2 game-winning goals. The Winnipeg Jets plucked Foley in the third round with the 78th overall in the 2015 draft.

If Foley makes the USA roster, he’ll have company from Rhode Island. Friars Assistant Coach Kris Mayotte was named to the U.S. National Junior Team in June.

Providence College forward Erik Foley outskates Ohio State University player for the puck.

And Foley also may end up playing against a fellow Friar in Toronto and Montreal as teammate Kasper Björkqvistwas named to Finland’s preliminary roster for the World Juniors on Monday.

J.D. Greenway, a man-child of a defenseman, was grabbed by the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday with the third round with the 72nd overall pick in the 2016 National HockeyLeague Draft.

International Scouting Services listed the 6-foot-4, 204-pound 18-year-old as the tenth-best available defenseman in the draft, calling him a quality package of size, speed, athleticism.

“He can play a finesse game despite his large from and he can play a physical game as well,” wrote ISS scout Phil Myre, a former NHL goalie. “Putting it all together consistently has been his biggest challenge. If he ever does, he’ll be a top player.”

SBNation’s college hockey site said Greenway “can be a punishing physical force to opponents, especially along the boards.”

“He’d going to get under the skin of the opposition an make life difficult for them,” SBNation reported. “He also has the ability to step up and make a big hit if he catches an opponent not looking in the neutral zone.”

The Potsdam, N.Y., native is continuing a family draft tradition. His brother, Boston University left wing Jordan Greenway, was chosen by the Minnesota Wild last year in the second round with the 50th overall pick.

With the 2016 draft rapidly approaching, we look back in this post and the next at the players of color who were selected in the 2015 NHL Draft in Sunrise, Fla., and how they performed in the 2015-16 season.

After a slow start to his freshman season, Boston University forward Jordan Greenway showed why the Minnesota Wild took him in the second round with the 50th overall pick in the draft.

He scored just two points in the first two months of the season for the Terriers. But the Canton, N.Y., native finished the season with 5 goals and 20 assists in 38 games. He performed well enough to be named Hockey East Rookie of the Week Feb. 5 and Feb. 15, and a Hockey East Top Performer four times – Nov. 30, Dec. 7, Jan. 25, Feb. 22.

After a slow start, Boston University freshman Jordan Greenway, a Minnesota Wild 2015 second-round draft pick, found his scoring touch with the Terriers.

“He showed signs of coming on” around Thanksgiving, BU Head Coach Dave Quinn told College Hockey News in March. “He’s had a huge impact on a lot of our games. He’s a great athlete, very fluid and coordinated for a guy who is 6-5 (230) pounds, has really good skills. He has a playmaker’s mentality.”

Quinn told The Boston Globe in March that Greenway is “a freak athlete.”

“I joke all the time, if he was a football player, he would be a five-star tight end at Alabama or Notre Dame.”

At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds – the 18-year-old Greenway is a member of USA Hockey’sNational Team Development Program. He notched5 goals and 20 assists in 64 games for a team that played against U.S. college, international, and United States Hockey League teams in 2015-16.

NHL 2015 draftee Oliver Kylington made his debut with the Calgary Flames in early April.

Swedish defenseman Oliver Kylington’s family was visiting him in California, where he was playing for the American Hockey League’s Stockton Heat, in April when he got a called up by he Calgary Flames, the team that drafted him in the second round with the 60th overall pick.

“Are you coming?” Kylington asked his father, according to The Calgary Herald. “And he was, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m going to make it to the game.'”

The 18-year-old Kylington played one game for the injury-riddled Flames and managed one shot on goal against the Wild. In Stockton, he appeared in 47 games, scoring 5 goals and 7 assists.

“I think it’s the first step to a big journey,” Kylington told The Calgary Herald after the call-up. “Right now, I don’t care where I got picked. I’m just thankful that Calgary picked me and that I’m here right now.”

Seattle Thunderbirds right wing Keegan Kolesar was chosen by the Columbus BlueJackets in the third round with 69th pick. After the Jackets training camp, Kolesar returned to his Western Hockey League major junior team.

Seattle’s Keegan Kolesar (Photo/Brian Liesse/Seattle Thunderbirds).

Too bad for opposing teams in the major junior league. Kolesar, 19, notched 30 goals and 31 assists in 64 games regular season games for Seattle this season and is proving to be a force in the WHL playoffs. In December, he signed a three-year entry level contract with the Blue Jackets.

“He’s big, fast, and strong,” Thunderbirds Head Coach Steve Konowalchuk told The Seattle Times of the 6-foot-1 and 220-pound Kolesar. “He can skate, he has the physical tools to be a force and the skill to score goals.”

Forward Erik Foley distinguished himself in his freshman year playing for Providence College.

Like Jordan Greenway, left wing Erik Foley went from sunny Florida’s 2015 draft to chilly New England for hockey. A former forward for the United States Hockey League’sCedar Rapids RoughRiders, Foley was taken by the Winnipeg Jets in the third round with the 78th overall pick.

The 18-year-old played for Providence College, where he tallied 7 goals and 12 assists for the Friars. Foley won the team’s Rev. Herman Schneider, O.P., Award as the team’s most valuable freshman.

Mathieu Joseph was all smiles at the 2015 draft. Not only was he taken by the Tampa BayLightning in the fourth round with the 120th pick, he was chosen by a team in a warm-weather state where he could work on his golf game.

But the links had to wait in 2015-16 as Joseph reported back to the St. John Sea Dogs, of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for more seasoning. There, the 19-year-old right wing resumed his torrid scoring ways, potting 33 goals and 40 assists in 58 games regular season games.

“He’s got a good combo of size and speed,” Sea Dogs Head Coach Danny Flynn told TampaBayLightning.com in February. “He’s a dangerous forward.”

Unfortunately, Joseph’s 2015-16 post season ended prematurely in April when he suffered a serious cut to the calf muscle on his left leg, a wound that required surgery. He’ll miss two to three months because of the injury, Ice Dog officials said.

Defenseman Caleb Jones, the Edmonton Oilers’ 2015 fourth-round pick, is following in the skates of his older brother – Blue Jackets D-man Seth Jones – and israpidly making a name for himself in the process.

Like his big brother, the younger Jones is doing his major junior hockey apprenticeship with the WHL Portland Winterhawks. And he’s becoming a force in the WHL, just like his brother was before he was chosen fourth overall in the 2013 draft by the Nashville Predators.

Born in Texas, Caleb Jones tallied 10 goals and 45 assists in 72 regular season games for Portland, was fifth overall in scoring among WHL rookies and 10th overall among the league’s defensemen in 2015-16.

Edmonton Oilers 2015 draftee Caleb Jones quickly established himself on the blue line for the WHL Portland Winterhawks in his rookie season(Photo/Dayna Fjord/Portland Winterhawks).

Jones, the son of retired National Basketball Association player Popeye Jones, signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Oilers in early April and appeared in three games with the Bakersfield Condors, Edmonton’s AmericanHockey League farm team.

“In his first season in Portland, Caleb had the ability to impact the game by using his skating ability to lead the rush as well as defend against the rush,” Winterhawks Assistant General Manager Matt Bardsley said. “He has a great passion for the game and we are happy to see that he was rewarded with a contract from the Oilers organization.

Nolan, who was in his second stint with the Sabres, piloted to team to a dismal 23-51-8 record, the worst record in the league. But many Sabres fans embraced the team’s race to the bottom for a chance at drafting Erie Otters forward Connor McDavid, who’s ranked as hockey’s top prospect by the NHL’s Central Scouting bureau.

Ted Nolan won’t be back behind the Sabres bench in 2015-16. The team fired him on Sunday. (Bill Wippert, Buffalo Sabres)

The league will hold a ping-pong ball lottery Saturday to determine which of the 14 NHL teams that failed to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs gets the first pick. The Sabres have a 20 percent of winning it.

Sabres General Manager Tim Murray told reporters Sunday that he felt the team had a better roster than its record indicated.

“I didn’t foresee us being a 30th-place team,” Murray said at a news conference. “Certainly after the trade deadline, trading out guys I had a big part in that, there’s no question and I own that. But up to the trade deadline I was open to keeping guys, I was open to maybe discussing with guys that were coming due, but the place we were in was the place we were in.”

Murray added: “I don’t know if I was disappointed (in Nolan). We decided to go with young guys in a rebuild and surround them with some high-character veterans and we’ve done that. We still finished in 30th-place. There’s been a lot of changes here and that’s on me. I’m not going to question his coaching decisions here in front of you guys. It’s a decision that was made and there’s a big picture to it.”

Nolan, who’s Ojibwe, had a 40-87-17 record with the Sabres since he took over Buffalo’s coaching duties in November 2013. The team’s poor showing over the last few seasons prompted it to trade stars like goaltender Ryan Miller, high-scoring forward Thomas Vanek, and unload bad free agent contracts like forward Ville Leino‘s.

Asked by the Associated Press about his dismissal, Nolan said “I’m just going to reflect on it and come out with a statement in the next couple of days.”

Evander Kane will have a new coach and new teammates next season in Buffalo.

Buffalo is looking to use the 2015 draft to reload – both on-ice and behind the bench. The drive for 2015-16 began in February when the Sabres acquired forward Evander Kane from the Winnipeg Jets in a seven-player trade.

Kane suffered a shoulder injury before the trade and didn’t play a single game for the Sabres. He knows he was brought in to add firepower to a team on the cusp of getting McDavid or Boston University forward Jack Eichel.

“There’s a lot of excitement for the future in Buffalo,” Kane told NHL.comin February. “Just looking at next year, they’re going to get a top pick and that’s exciting. Just to have one of those guys maybe to play with next year, plus the other young players on that team.”

There’s speculation that if the Sabres do land McDavid they’ll take a serious, and expensive, run at Detroit Red WingsHead Coach Mike Babcock, who’s in the final year of his contract in the Motor City.

Babcock, who guided Detroit to the Stanley Cup in 2008, could command several million dollars per season as teams like the deep-pocketed Toronto Maple Leafs, which fired Coach Peter Horachek and General Manager Dave Nonis Sunday, aggressively vie for his services.

Buffalo, Toronto, Philly…all believed to have interest in Babcock. He will get paid big $…that's a given. McDavid might tip the scale.

Nolan’s firing leaves only one minority head coach in the NHL – Philadelphia Flyers’Craig Berube, who’s part Cree. But Berube might also be on his way out the door soon because the team – 33-31-18 – failed to make the playoffs. The Flyers only have a 6.5 percent chance of winning the McDavid/Eichel lottery Saturday.